Jerry
Juhl, Muppet head writer since the early 1960's, wanted to squelch a rumor
that has been spreading on the net and across the wire services for several
weeks about the Swedish Chef's origins.

In
an article released via Reuters, Lars Kuprik falsely claimed he was the
inspiration for the Swedish Chef.

"Yes,
it's me, the Swedish Chef,'' chuckles Lars Kuprik...

In 1969,
a 16-year-old Kuprik packed his bags and set off for the United States
to work at a Swedish restaurant in Hollywood..

The same
year he got the chance to perform live on "Tempo Tempo,'' the forerunner
of the popular U.S. morning TV show ''Good Morning America,'' chatting
and entertaining while cooking traditional dishes from the Swedish smorgasbord
such as gravad lax.

The show
was hosted by Regis Philbin, who now comperes the high-stakes TV game
show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire,'' and he was supposed to coach
a nervous Kuprik through the program.

But Kuprik
said no one had arrived on stage when the spotlights and cameras were
turned on and he stood alone in front of an expectant audience.

"They
say: 'You're on live' and there I stand in my chef's hat, shaking with
nervousness, clinging to a pastry bag with mayonnaise with the sweat
pouring out of me. I'm blocked. I can't speak English or Swedish,''
he said.

"I
called out for my friend Kurt from the Viking Horn but the only thing
that came through my lips was a strange guttural sound of hu-do-do-bu-du-bu-do.''

The performance
was a failure and Kuprik went home without a contract for a cooking
show.

Little
did he know that Jim Henson, the Muppet show's creator, would see a
tape of the show and take inspiration from it for one of his most popular
characters."

Jerry
Juhl helps to set the record straight that Kuprik isn't the inspiration
for the Chef no matter what the claims may be. "I wrote, rehearsed,
rewrote, brainstormed, and giggled uncontrollably a thousand times with
Jim Henson as we dealt with the Swedish Chef, and I never ONCE heard him
mention an actual Swedish chef, especially one that claims to be Charleton
Heston's golf buddy! I mean, that's a story Jim would have told!"

"I can't
remember where the genesis of Swedish Chef was," comments Juhl. "I
think it was an idea with Jon Stone around the "Sex and Violence"
show, which I didn't work on. But I do remember that Jim spent a couple
of weeks listening to Berlitz tapes while commuting to get his babble
perfected. Then, much later, I actually WROTE the babble! Heck, I come
from good Danish stock, which Jim and I decided made me an expert in Scandenavian
linguistics."

One of the
greatest charms about Jim Henson's characters are that we can all relate
to some aspect of them. That's what makes them seem so real. However,
as Jerry Juhl alluded, the Swedish Chef's inspiration was a culmination
of Jim Henson and his creative team, not the result of Lars Kuprik.

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